SOE Buys Vigil
- Thread starter Guy
- Start date
Requiel
PVC Love God
Or Sigil owed a metric fuckton of money to people. Sony buys the only thing of value that they have (the VG IP and codebase then dissolves the company. All of a sudden there's a whole bunch of people looking for jobs hanging around who are experts in this shiny new thing Sony have just bought and all the people trying to get their cash back from Sigil are SOL.
Git
Your opinion is worthless....
lots and lots of info on this all over the place if you look hard enough
one of the Devs for Sigil is an FoH member and has moved into SoE to carry on working on their sekrit project.
i think you will find they bought it lock stock sacked 50 people brad is being kept for his name nothing more, those 50 who didnt get sacked are still working in the same offices.
one of the Devs for Sigil is an FoH member and has moved into SoE to carry on working on their sekrit project.i think you will find they bought it lock stock sacked 50 people brad is being kept for his name nothing more, those 50 who didnt get sacked are still working in the same offices.
Nymawae
Eternal Trial Member
They were told time and time again not to release. EQ2 released too early and ruined it's reputation. Despite the fact that it's now a cracking game it'll never recover from the first 3 months impression.
SOE and Sigil learned from this by ... er.... doing the same thing again. I've no sympathy for the fuckwits that think it's acceptable to release a half finished game because they think gamers are stupid enough to fund their sloppiness whilst they fix it.
Best thing MS did was let Sigil buy out the MS interest in the game tbh. Vanguard set off as the true successor to EQ with some really innovative ideals and gameplay, it turned into a big mush of WoW & EQ me too compramises. McQuaid has all the credability in the MMORPG market now of a slightly damp piece of out of date cheese.
Phew... Feel better for that
SOE and Sigil learned from this by ... er.... doing the same thing again. I've no sympathy for the fuckwits that think it's acceptable to release a half finished game because they think gamers are stupid enough to fund their sloppiness whilst they fix it.
Best thing MS did was let Sigil buy out the MS interest in the game tbh. Vanguard set off as the true successor to EQ with some really innovative ideals and gameplay, it turned into a big mush of WoW & EQ me too compramises. McQuaid has all the credability in the MMORPG market now of a slightly damp piece of out of date cheese.
Phew... Feel better for that
![gu_20030407[1].jpg](/data/attachments/1/1182-67dcdc1ef2b221a45fab7980dd529a75.jpg)
Flight
Full Member
Brad has never had credibility in some peoples eyes. Here's an article from 2001 :
http://www.thesafehouse.org/forums/showpost.php?p=75868&postcount=23
OK, here's the story I heard, from someone still working at SOE SD. I'll start from a couple of years ago.
Kelly Flock spins off redeye/verant basically to give Smedley an object lesson-- surrounding yourself with talentless friends leads to ruin. Brad McQuaid was, and is, one of Smedley's talentless friends. Smedley is a stand-up guy. He'll always protect his friends... especially when he thinks they're directly responsible for making him a millionaire! Verant, the company, was just enough rope for Smed to hang himself. Kelly Flock assumed Verant would fail and Smed would learn his lesson. It didn't.
Brad McQuaid got lucky.
Prior to 1996, he had developed a shareware RPG in his spare time, and he played the hell out of a popular DIKUmud set in D&D's Forgotten Realms called Sojourn. In 1996, he was in the right place at the right time, and seized the oppurtunity to create a graphical version of his favorite MUD. After years of work with a huge team, with a huge budget, with a huge fanfare, Everquest was released in 1998. It made a gazillion dollars and is still raking in the cash hand over fist this very day.
Things weren't coming up roses at 989/redeye/verant. Brad himself had basically done no work whatsoever since Everquest's release, and many (including Kelly Flock) think he didn't do anything *before* its release. Brad thought of himself as infallible, and Everquest's incredible success, his millions, and his ferrari were all proof of his greatness. Being crowned a "Game @#%$" by PC Gamer didn't help either. His self-aggrandizement cannibalized Verant's customer relations for its entire existance. He insisted on being the sole point of contact with the public to promote his own name, and he did a miserable job.
Just this past week, he released Luclin screenshots without authorization and got incredibly defensive when SOE PR got upset. He sent out an email with a smarmy "I've been doing this for years, and the fact is that the screenshots were fine, people just hate change." His first hire for player relations, Gordon Wrinn, was, unbelievably enough, worse.
But people don't, as a rule, get fired from Verant. They quit. Like the lead graphics programmer, who quit a week after Everquest shipped. And his replacement, Brian Hook, who quit in disgust mere months after being hired. Then another EQ programmer left. And another. Then many others asked to be moved off the team.
(edit: as of today, SOE is beginning a round of layoffs. SOE is losing money. This is probably due more to the advertising crash than the pushed-back release dates, though.)
Smedley thinks everybody's happy because Verant had a low turnover. Even though everybody there is miserable, even the staff artists are making $125k/year and can't find a better job elsewhere.
Some were "promoted" off the team. Like Brad McQuaid. He was moved because they were "borderline ready to revolt". They "hated Brad so much they wanted to puke and constantly bitched about him." Now the EQ Live team is "busy hating Jeff Butler with a passion". Butler is a "major Brad lackey". The factions are split "more like 90:10 on the hate Brad/Jeff vs. like Brad/Jeff side. It was BAD." He is "so hated at Verant that out of a team of 60 people less than 10 would go with him. Probably closer to 5."
Note the quotemarks.
So anyway, Everquest made money like crazy, and Flock admitted his mistake. SOE bought out Verant for a tidy sum and Flock accepted Brad because he thought he was "part of the magic". Today he admitted his mistake. Sony Pictures (SOE's parent company) looked at the balance sheet, and Brad's salary, and the fact that titles kept getting pushed back. They essentially accused Smedley and Brad of lying to them about Verant's condition before the purchase, mainly the ship dates for Sovereign, EQ2, SWG, and Planetside. None of these games will ship before 2003, mostly through gross mismanagement.
Sovereign, for example, is Smed's baby. Smedley is Executive Producer on the project, and the producer is his lackey. The producer has absolutely no experience whatsoever in management. He's a former QA tester, 22 years old. The lead programmer is talented but anal and non-decisive. They already sacked the former lead programmer and two designers. The problem is really Smed, but he'll never admit it.
Anyway, Sony Pictures @#%$ itself, and Kelly Flock, who never liked Brad, feels the heat. In the meeting yesterday, Kelly says "Okay guys, this is @#%$, what the @#%$ are you doing?!" Brad and Smed get flustered, some words are thrown around, accusations are made of Brad being a no-talent weenie, and Brad decides on the spot to leave.
When SOE bought Verant, they gave both Smed and Brad three year contracts. Sony Pictures and Kelly Flock were *so* incensed at the cluster!$!% that is Verant that they basically said "@#%$ it guys, you wanna leave, fine, we need to clean up this mess and you're not going to be much help."
Verant as an entity, much like Origin, no longer exists. It's been disassembled and absorbed into Sony Online Entertainment.
The EQ live and EQ2 teams are in shock. Nobody knew that Brad was going to leave. They heard about it the same time you did.
http://www.thesafehouse.org/forums/showpost.php?p=75868&postcount=23
OK, here's the story I heard, from someone still working at SOE SD. I'll start from a couple of years ago.
Kelly Flock spins off redeye/verant basically to give Smedley an object lesson-- surrounding yourself with talentless friends leads to ruin. Brad McQuaid was, and is, one of Smedley's talentless friends. Smedley is a stand-up guy. He'll always protect his friends... especially when he thinks they're directly responsible for making him a millionaire! Verant, the company, was just enough rope for Smed to hang himself. Kelly Flock assumed Verant would fail and Smed would learn his lesson. It didn't.
Brad McQuaid got lucky.
Prior to 1996, he had developed a shareware RPG in his spare time, and he played the hell out of a popular DIKUmud set in D&D's Forgotten Realms called Sojourn. In 1996, he was in the right place at the right time, and seized the oppurtunity to create a graphical version of his favorite MUD. After years of work with a huge team, with a huge budget, with a huge fanfare, Everquest was released in 1998. It made a gazillion dollars and is still raking in the cash hand over fist this very day.
Things weren't coming up roses at 989/redeye/verant. Brad himself had basically done no work whatsoever since Everquest's release, and many (including Kelly Flock) think he didn't do anything *before* its release. Brad thought of himself as infallible, and Everquest's incredible success, his millions, and his ferrari were all proof of his greatness. Being crowned a "Game @#%$" by PC Gamer didn't help either. His self-aggrandizement cannibalized Verant's customer relations for its entire existance. He insisted on being the sole point of contact with the public to promote his own name, and he did a miserable job.
Just this past week, he released Luclin screenshots without authorization and got incredibly defensive when SOE PR got upset. He sent out an email with a smarmy "I've been doing this for years, and the fact is that the screenshots were fine, people just hate change." His first hire for player relations, Gordon Wrinn, was, unbelievably enough, worse.
But people don't, as a rule, get fired from Verant. They quit. Like the lead graphics programmer, who quit a week after Everquest shipped. And his replacement, Brian Hook, who quit in disgust mere months after being hired. Then another EQ programmer left. And another. Then many others asked to be moved off the team.
(edit: as of today, SOE is beginning a round of layoffs. SOE is losing money. This is probably due more to the advertising crash than the pushed-back release dates, though.)
Smedley thinks everybody's happy because Verant had a low turnover. Even though everybody there is miserable, even the staff artists are making $125k/year and can't find a better job elsewhere.
Some were "promoted" off the team. Like Brad McQuaid. He was moved because they were "borderline ready to revolt". They "hated Brad so much they wanted to puke and constantly bitched about him." Now the EQ Live team is "busy hating Jeff Butler with a passion". Butler is a "major Brad lackey". The factions are split "more like 90:10 on the hate Brad/Jeff vs. like Brad/Jeff side. It was BAD." He is "so hated at Verant that out of a team of 60 people less than 10 would go with him. Probably closer to 5."
Note the quotemarks.
So anyway, Everquest made money like crazy, and Flock admitted his mistake. SOE bought out Verant for a tidy sum and Flock accepted Brad because he thought he was "part of the magic". Today he admitted his mistake. Sony Pictures (SOE's parent company) looked at the balance sheet, and Brad's salary, and the fact that titles kept getting pushed back. They essentially accused Smedley and Brad of lying to them about Verant's condition before the purchase, mainly the ship dates for Sovereign, EQ2, SWG, and Planetside. None of these games will ship before 2003, mostly through gross mismanagement.
Sovereign, for example, is Smed's baby. Smedley is Executive Producer on the project, and the producer is his lackey. The producer has absolutely no experience whatsoever in management. He's a former QA tester, 22 years old. The lead programmer is talented but anal and non-decisive. They already sacked the former lead programmer and two designers. The problem is really Smed, but he'll never admit it.
Anyway, Sony Pictures @#%$ itself, and Kelly Flock, who never liked Brad, feels the heat. In the meeting yesterday, Kelly says "Okay guys, this is @#%$, what the @#%$ are you doing?!" Brad and Smed get flustered, some words are thrown around, accusations are made of Brad being a no-talent weenie, and Brad decides on the spot to leave.
When SOE bought Verant, they gave both Smed and Brad three year contracts. Sony Pictures and Kelly Flock were *so* incensed at the cluster!$!% that is Verant that they basically said "@#%$ it guys, you wanna leave, fine, we need to clean up this mess and you're not going to be much help."
Verant as an entity, much like Origin, no longer exists. It's been disassembled and absorbed into Sony Online Entertainment.
The EQ live and EQ2 teams are in shock. Nobody knew that Brad was going to leave. They heard about it the same time you did.
Taians
..
Well if they have the same talent that they used to resurrect EQ2 then it will turn into a good game. Sad thing is EQ2 is considered by alot to be the best fantasy MMO on the market atm but its piss poor release (like VG) forced alot to quit and start/restart other MMO's. Bascially, EQ2 will never get the subs it is rightly deserved at this point. I did hear the new expansion has been a MASSIVE success and alot have gone back but thats just hear say.
Git
Your opinion is worthless....
VG from an FFA perspective needs a lot of fixing, i went back to DAoC 6 weeks ago due to it being so bad, got to 43 and 25 respectively on my characters.
lag awful gfx buggy crashes not good zoning meant to be non existent it was very existent, had to beef up my pc to play not good, beautifal game if they fixed it and it was capable of being run like EQII i would be tempted but i really cant see how.
on top of that in game fixes which ruined pvp needed to be fixed, not sure if they have so who knows but i know the pop died a death in 3 months of release all the old school guilds went back to their respective games.
lag awful gfx buggy crashes not good zoning meant to be non existent it was very existent, had to beef up my pc to play not good, beautifal game if they fixed it and it was capable of being run like EQII i would be tempted but i really cant see how.
on top of that in game fixes which ruined pvp needed to be fixed, not sure if they have so who knows but i know the pop died a death in 3 months of release all the old school guilds went back to their respective games.
Adder
Eternal Student
From an PvE view I absolutely love VG, the quest system and quests I've found have been brilliant, quest rewards have been worthwhile and even at fairly low levels I still felt part of something big rather than looking at the end of the game wondering what it�s like to be uber. The fighting and grouping system I love, at least in theory, and the general game play I really do enjoy. Good downtime between fighting, the ability to pull off a few in fight miracles when things go wrong and still the overall knowledge that if you die you�ve lost something so staying alive is defiantly recommended.
The bugs, crashes, lack of support and now a lack of players have just killed it though and I can�t see SOE managing to sort that out, I�ve got a felling it will die a death fairly soon. I really do enjoy playing it more than I ever enjoyed EQ2, My problem with EQ2 was always the way you�re forced into another instance zone that looked the same as the one you were in an hour or two ago, that and some of the long quests which you never felt you were actually getting anywhere with or in some cases couldn�t, and even then most of the time they were worthless. Added with the fact you couldn�t really test a players abilities as much as I feel VG can EQ2 just felt a little to structured stuck in a small world for me.
Another case of releasing a game to early but this time maybe they will realise that? �
The bugs, crashes, lack of support and now a lack of players have just killed it though and I can�t see SOE managing to sort that out, I�ve got a felling it will die a death fairly soon. I really do enjoy playing it more than I ever enjoyed EQ2, My problem with EQ2 was always the way you�re forced into another instance zone that looked the same as the one you were in an hour or two ago, that and some of the long quests which you never felt you were actually getting anywhere with or in some cases couldn�t, and even then most of the time they were worthless. Added with the fact you couldn�t really test a players abilities as much as I feel VG can EQ2 just felt a little to structured stuck in a small world for me.
Another case of releasing a game to early but this time maybe they will realise that? �
Git
Your opinion is worthless....
yes i just went back to Lamorak mate found an awesome UK guild we have about 30 online from RR4-RR11 and it's all go
did EQII for a year on pvp maxxed out on that did VG nearly capped my levels in 3 months but DAoC has evolved so much in the year i left i still found things to do, and my healer finally hit R6L3 after a retemplate which cost me 110p
if Kaine reads this i shall be ingame friday daytime m8
did EQII for a year on pvp maxxed out on that did VG nearly capped my levels in 3 months but DAoC has evolved so much in the year i left i still found things to do, and my healer finally hit R6L3 after a retemplate which cost me 110p
if Kaine reads this i shall be ingame friday daytime m8
I dunno, I still enjoy playing VG. The latest patch contained the wonderful message of "309 bugs fixed". Not sure whether I should be appalled that there were a lot more than 309 bugs in the game (considering there are still bugs around) or whether I should be happy that 309 bugs are gone...
If you are in a decent sized guild, you tend to have people to play with, which seems to be the only real problem nowadays. I for one think it's the best game I have played in ages and will continue to play it. At least until so many people leave that I won't be able to find groups. Because group play is where the game really shines. People just soloing are missing so much, it's not even funny... Even duoing or small group play doesn't hold a candle to a dungeon run in yellow-red con territory with a full group. It is great.
The main problem these days is lack of population, but Sony is planning to merge servers, so I expect that will become better soon.
If you are in a decent sized guild, you tend to have people to play with, which seems to be the only real problem nowadays. I for one think it's the best game I have played in ages and will continue to play it. At least until so many people leave that I won't be able to find groups. Because group play is where the game really shines. People just soloing are missing so much, it's not even funny... Even duoing or small group play doesn't hold a candle to a dungeon run in yellow-red con territory with a full group. It is great.
The main problem these days is lack of population, but Sony is planning to merge servers, so I expect that will become better soon.